The Common Dreams news team works hard to bring you real news that matters—which is often about how the world is. But we also work hard to bring you the voices of visionaries who dream about how the world should be.

We believe that informed, inspired and activated people can change the world—and create a more sustainable, more just, and more peaceful future built on our common dreams.

But independent journalism and democracy itself have never been more needed yet more fragile and at risk than now. We must fight on. Please support our critical End-of-Year Campaign.

Search form

Synergy in Security: The Rise of the National Security Complex

by

Tom Barry

In his January 17, 1961 farewell address, President Dwight D.
Eisenhower cautioned: "In the councils of government, we must guard
against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or
unsought, by the military-industrial complex."

Five decades later, this complex, which Eisenhower defined as the
"conjunction of an immense military establishment and a large arms
industry," is no longer new. And while Eisenhower's warning is still
pertinent, the scale, scope, and substance of the complex have changed
in alarming ways. It has morphed into a new type of public-private
partnership-one that spans military, intelligence, and homeland-security
contracting, and might be better called a "national security complex."

Not counting the supplemental authorizations for the wars in Iraq
and Afghanistan, current levels of military spending are, adjusting for
inflation, about 45% higher than the military budget when Eisenhower
left office. Including the Iraq and Afghanistan war budgets, military
spending stands about 30% higher, adjusted for inflation, than any of
the post-WWII highpoints-Korea, Vietnam, and the Reagan build-up in the
1980s. Private military contracting, which constituted about half of the
Pentagon's spending in the 1960s, currently absorbs about 70% of the
Department of Defense (DoD) budget. No longer centered exclusively in
the Pentagon, outsourcing to private contractors now extends to all
aspects of government. But since 2001, the major surge in federal
outsourcing has occurred in the "intelligence community" and in the new
Department of Homeland Security (DHS).

Since Sept. 11, 2001, a vastly broadened government-industry
complex has emerged-one that brings together all aspects of national
security. Several interrelated trends are responsible for its formation
and explosive growth: 1) the dramatic growth in government outsourcing
since the early 1990s, and particularly since the beginning of the
George W. Bush administration, 2) the post-Sept. 11 focus on homeland
security, 3) the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, 4) the Bush-era surge in
intelligence budget and intelligence contracts, and 5) the cross-agency
focus on information and communications technology.

The term "military-industrial complex" no longer adequately
describes the multi-headed monster that has emerged in our times. The
industrial (that is, big business) part of the military-industrial
complex has become ever more deeply integrated into government-no longer
simply providing arms but also increasingly offering their services on
the fronts of war and deep inside the halls of government-commissioned
to carry out the very missions of the DoD, DHS, and intelligence
agencies. In the national security complex, it is ever more difficult to
determine what is private sector and what is public sector-and whose
interests are being served.

Different Departments, Same Companies

In 2008, the federal government handed out contracts to the
private sector totaling $525.5 billion-up from $209 billion in 2000.
That's about a quarter of the entire federal budget. The DoD alone
accounts for about $390 billion, or nearly three-quarters of total
federal contracts.

The living symbol of the new national security complex is
Lockheed Martin, whose slogan is "We Never Forget Who We're Working
For." That's the U.S. government-sales to which account for more than
80% of the company's revenues, with most of the balance coming from
international weapons sales and other security contracts facilitated by
Washington. In addition to its sales of military hardware, Lockheed is
the government's top provider of IT services and systems integration
(see Table 1, below).

Whether it is military operations, interrogations, intelligence
gathering, or homeland security, the country's "national security"
apparatus is largely in the same hands. Various components of the U.S.
national-security state are divvied up among different federal
bureaucracies. But increasingly, the main components are finding a
common home within corporate America. Corporations such as Lockheed
Martin, Boeing, L-3 Communications, and Northrop Grumman have the entire
business-military, intelligence, and "homeland security"-covered.

Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, and Boeing led the top ten
military contractors in 2008 (see Table 2).

The 2003 creation of the Department of Homeland Security has helped
spawn an explosion of new companies, and new divisions of existing
companies, providing "homeland security" products and services. Before
President Bush created DHS in the wake of Sept. 11, the agencies that
would be merged into the new department did very little outsourcing.
From less than 1% of federal contracts (as a total dollar amount) in
2000, outsourcing by DHS has quadrupled as a portion of federal
contracting from 2003 to 2009.

Although DHS contracts with scores of new companies, its top
contractors are all leading military contractors that have established
"homeland security" divisions and subsidiaries.

The top ten DHS contractors in 2008 were Lockheed Martin,
Northrop Grumman, IBM, L-3 Communications, Unisys, SAIC, Boeing, Booz
Allen Hamilton, General Electric, and Accenture, all leading military
contractors. Other major military contractors among the top 25 DHS
contractors include General Dynamics, Fluor, and Computer Sciences Corp
(see Table 3).

There is no public list of corporations that contract for U.S.
intelligence agencies. But based on company press releases and filings
with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Tim Shorrock concludes in
his new book Spies for Hire that the top five intelligence
contractors are probably Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, SAIC,
General Dynamics, and L-3 Communications. Other major contractors
include Booz Allen Hamilton, CACI International, DRS Technologies, and
ManTech International, also leading military contractors.

Within the past eight years-since Sept. 11, 2001-the intelligence
budget has soared, rising from an estimated $30 billion in 2000 to an
estimated $66.5 billion today. Intelligence agencies have channeled most
of the new funding to private contractors, both major companies like
CACI and thousands of individual contractors. Private contracts now
account for about 70% of the intelligence budget. Intelligence community
sources told the Washington Post that private contractors
constituted "a significant majority" of analysts working at the new
National Counterterroism Center, which provides the White House with
terrorism intelligence.

The major military contractors are now moving their headquarters
from their production centers, often in California and Texas, to the
Washington Beltway in pursuit of more intelligence, military, and
homeland security contracts. The gleaming Beltway office buildings of
the security corporations are now the most visible symbol of this
national security complex.

Boots on the Ground, Computers in Cubicles

Another feature of this evolving, ever-expanding complex is that
all the U.S. government departments involved in national security-DoD,
State Department, DHS, and intelligence-are outsourcing the
boots-on-the-ground components of their missions through the use of
private security and military provider firms. Companies such as
ArmourGroup (which includes Wackhenhut), DynCorp, MPRI, and Xe (formerly
Blackwater Worldwide) have injected the private sector directly into
the public sector through their work as interrogators, military
trainers, prison guards, intelligence agents, and war-fighters.

Five dozen of these security contractors have organized
themselves into the International Peace Operations Association (IPOA).
After Blackwater came under worldwide scrutiny for its massacre of
unarmed Iraqis in central Baghdad on Sept. 17, 2007, the firm left IPOA,
whose code of conduct for "peacekeeping" operations it had flagrantly
ignored. Blackwater created a new association of private military
contractors called Global Peace and Security Operations-conveniently
without any potentially embarrassing code of conduct.

Private contractors are not only on the frontlines of war and
clandestine operations, but have also penetrated the national security
bureaucracy itself. Reacting to a March 2008 GAO report on conflicts of
interest within the Pentagon, Frida Berrigan of the New America
Foundation's Arms and Security Initiative observed that alarming numbers
of "cubicle mercenaries" are now working within federal bureaucracies
as administrators, contract managers, intelligence analysts, and
cybersecurity chiefs. No longer does the "large arms industry" that
Eisenhower warned about just peddle goods like weapons and missiles, it
also sells itself through its services.

Common Dominators of the New Complex: Information and Security

Private contractors are also in control of the core of the
complex's information and intelligence systems. Information and
communications technology is the fastest-growing sector in government
contracting. The DHS's expanding involvement in cybersecurity,
information systems, and electronic identification programs, for
example, is adding billions of dollars annually to the national security
boom.

Lockheed Martin led the ranks of information technology (IT)
contractors in 2008, followed by Boeing and Northrop Grumman. Although
IT contracts are expanding rapidly, there are few new entrants to the
list of top IT providers to the government. Among the top 100 IT
contractors, there were just twelve new entrants, as traditional
military giants dominated the list (see Table 4).

One of the largest sources of federal contracting at DHS has been the
EAGLE (Enterprise Acquisition Gateway for Leading Edge Solutions) IT
program, which awarded $8.2 billion in contracts in the past three
years. Among the leading contractors are CACI, Booz Allen Hamilton,
Lockheed Martin, SAIC, Northrop Grumman, General Dynamics, and BAE
Systems-all major military contractors. Most of the EAGLE IT bonanza is
in the form of "indefinite-delivery, indefinite quantity contracts" that
provide generous operating room for IT firms to determine their own
solutions to DHS' vast IT and cybersecurity requirements.

The major military corporations have quickly formed new branches
to focus on these new opportunities outside of their traditional core
contracts with the Pentagon. This year, for example, Northrop Grumman
created a new Information Systems division to seek military, homeland
security, and intelligence IT contracts. Recognizing the interest in the
Obama administration in cyber-security and information war,
corporations such as Booz Allen Hamilton and Hewlett-Packard, among
others, have created new cybersecurity divisions or subsidiaries.
Similarly, the new administration's focus on transnational disease has
led military companies such as General Dynamics to acquire medical
subsidiaries.

Revolving-Door Security Consultants

Another manifestation of the new national security complex is
the rise of a new series of consulting agencies that act as an interface
between government and their clients. That's an easy connection for
such companies as the Chertoff Group, Ridge Global, and RiceHadley
Group, since all their principals recently left government, where they
had presided over the unprecedented wave of outsourcing.

Two of these national security agencies are headed by the DHS's
first two secretaries, Michael Chertoff and Tom Ridge, while the newest
group brings together Condoleezza Rice and Stephen Hadley, who only a
year ago were serving as secretary of state and national security
adviser, respectively.

When announcing his group's formation, Chertoff boasted, "Our
principals have worked closely together for years, as leaders of the
Department of Defense, the Department of Homeland Security, the
Department of Justice, the National Security Agency and the CIA."
Indeed, a leading member of this new group is former CIA director
Michael Hayden (2005-2009), who also directed the National Security
Agency (1999-2005). Others include former DHS deputy Paul Schneider (who
was head of acquisitions for NSA and the U.S. Navy prior to his
position at DHS); Admiral Jay Cohen (Ret.), who was DHS director of
science and technology and previously the Navy's technology chief; and
Charlie Allen, who was the intelligence chief at DHS and, according to
Michael Chertoff, "pretty much head of everything you could be for the
CIA."

The Chertoff Group has now hooked up with Blue Star Capital, a
transatlantic investment company specializing in mergers and
acquisitions in the security business. In its announcement of the new
partnership, Blue Star emphasized their joint interest in "generating
opportunities" across the national security spectrum-"in the homeland
security, defense, and intelligence markets."

Chertoff himself applauded the value of the merger: "I believe
there are many areas of opportunity within the Homeland Security,
Intelligence and Defense sectors where the synergies between Blue Star
and the Chertoff Group will provide real value."

Taking Back Security

The "unwarranted influence" that concerned Eisenhower during the
Cold War now pervades national politics and is rarely questioned. Nor
has there been any evaluation of the achievements of the increasingly
privatized national security complex. In his 2010 State of the Union
address, President Obama talked about the need for fiscal restraint, but
exempted "national security" from the planned spending freeze. Despite
manifold evidence of vast waste and scandalous profiteering in the
security apparatus-to say nothing of "unnecessary wars"-the president
didn't see fit to scale back the security agencies. By failing to do so,
he has all but guaranteed that the outsourcing bonanza will continue.
With "national security" off limits for budget cuts, Obama signaled that
safeguarding the nation against the "unwarranted influence" and "rise
of misplaced power" will not be priorities for this administration.

As major corporations such as Lockheed Martin and security
consulting agencies such as the Chertoff Group extend their corporate
tentacles into the intelligence, military, and homeland security
terrains, the greater threat they pose. The corporate penetration of all
the government's information-gathering, communications, intelligence,
and data systems undermines democratic governance. The new corporate
domination of data-mining, communications, and cybersecurity
systems-with little or no government oversight -threatens individual
liberty and privacy. This also creates a powerful vested interest in a
large and growing "national security" apparatus-and one that is deeply
integrated with the top echelons of the intelligence agencies, military,
and other parts of this secretive state-within-the-state.

In the end, it's not the contractors that are the central problem
with the national security complex-it's the outsourcers, that is, the
elected politicians and the government administrators they appoint or
confirm. The contractors are working to maximize profits, and are
answerable mainly to company shareholders. The outsourcers, however, are
ultimately answerable, at least in principle, to the public. What is at
stake is who really controls public policy-a democratically accountable
government, or an unaccountable fusion of governmental and corporate
power.

This is the world we live in. This is the world we cover.

Because of people like you, another world is possible. There are many battles to be won, but we will battle them together—all of us. Common Dreams is not your normal news site. We don't survive on clicks. We don't want advertising dollars. We want the world to be a better place. But we can't do it alone. It doesn't work that way. We need you. If you can help today—because every gift of every size matters—please do.

Tom Barry is a senior policy analyst and director of the
TransBorder Project at the Center for International Policy in
Washington, D.C. Barry is the author of numerous books on U.S. foreign
policy, and he blogs on border security, immigration, and homeland
security issues at borderlinesblog.blogspot.com.

Further

To those who consider Trump a reptilian shape-shifter, mazel tov: Now he officially is one. Thanks to a species-naming auction for Rainforest Trust, a small, blind, worm-like, newly discovered amphibian who buries its head in the ground will be named Dermophis donaldtrumpi. The name, says its creator, is "perfect" for the new caecilian, from the Latin for "blind...perfectly mirroring the strategic vision (Trump) has consistently shown towards climate change.”

Common Dreams brings you the news that matters.

Sign up for Newsletter

Connect With Us

Support our common dreams.

Can We Count on Your Help Today?

Common Dreams is a small nonprofit with a big mission. Every day of the week, we publish the most important breaking news & views for the progressive community. To remain an independent news source, we do not advertise, sell subscriptions or accept corporate contributions. Instead, we rely on readers like you, to provide the "people power" that fuels our work. Please help keep Common Dreams alive by making a contribution. Thank you. - Craig Brown, Co-founder